I'm happy to get any seat as a non-rev and more and more frequently I am ending up in middle seats. Knowing that, I especially like SWA's model of choosing my own middle seat (if I get on). I always choose it in one of the first few rows because it just drives those people crazy who thought they could hold out with "I'm holding (the empty middle seat next to them) for someone" in order to have more elbow room as they happily let a plane-load of others pass by their row. Sorry, when the door is ready to close and I have to quickly pick a seat, I'm not waltzing all the way to the rear (and still getting stuck in a middle seat).
The look of horror on some guy's face as I recently did this was priceless. As I'm actually getting into the middle seat in his row (he's on the aisle) and I'm saying "excuse me", he says "you're sitting here ?? (with such disdain). Wish I could have said "No, I'm just going to hit your knee caps for a few seconds and then climb out, just because I feel like it"......
Do some of these people actually believe they have squatter's rights to the seat next to them?